But for a certain lawless and slothful good humor, and the free-and-easy ways of a rustic tippler, the man would have alarmed the least observing of spectators.
If the portraits of Tonsard, his inn, and his father-in-law take a prominent place in this history, it is because that place belongs to him and to the inn and to the family.

In the first place, their existence, so minutely described, is the type of a hundred other households in the valley of Les Aigues.

Secondly, Tonsard, without being other than the instrument of deep and active hatreds, had an immense influence on the struggle that was about to take place, being the friend and counsellor of all the complainants of the lower classes.

His inn, as we shall presently see, was the rendezvous for the aggressors; in fact, he became their chief, partly on account of the fear he inspired throughout the valley--less, however, by his actual deeds than by those that were constantly expected of him.

The threat of this man was as much dreaded as the thing threatened, so that he never had occasion to execute it.
Every revolt, open or concealed, has its banner.